Mary Rinaldi

Experience

Product Manager | A Say, Inc | Jan 2018 -Present

Mission

Design and build a broker-dealer proxy and shareholder communication notice system from the ground up that delivers a compliant, robust notice system for multiple broker-dealer clients, aimed at expanding shareholder knowledge and voting participation

Challenge

Gather and understand all the regulatory, user and client requirements in a space that is dominated by a single competitor, turn those requirements into a modern, scalable product that can handle notice and voting campaigns across the universe of 10,000 US/NA securities and millions of recipients.

How

Dive into every available research point and build out a timeline, dependencies and identify points of opacity, and then design a simple data and services model that ingests publicly available data (EDGAR) via a data provider, creating notice and vote jobs that are processed and delivered to end shareholders as the MVP, iterate MVP with client 1.

Educate every new employee on the product, document the proxy voting landscape and iterate product design with engineering team, ensure documentation stays up to date

Prioritize the backlog, run sprint planning, groom sprints and collaborate with tech lead to define large features and major changes to the product architecture as new data is discovered and requirements updated.

Wins

Shipped 3 million shareholder notifications on time and with new features, such as A/B testing of notification style and copy, adding and scaling a campaign feature, that remembers recipients and moves them through an education funnel

Shipped positions API and in-app notification MVP,

Successfully pitched a top 3 custodian for an institutional voting pilot program and spearheaded relationship management

Create a simple buying experience for users to purchase products relevant to them, establish relationships with experts for investment advice and guidance and generate qualified leads for the sales organization.

How

Conduct user research and opportunity analysis to gain a deep understanding of user base and discover whitespace for growth, define the test and development plan and bring products/features to market.

Guide team of co-located and remote designers and engineers to evolve a user-focused process from ideation to launch.

Wireframe/prototype ideas to test benefits with users prior to launch.

Influence senior managers to participate in user-centered design and JTBD approaches, helping to transform internal mental models and encourage a fresh, lean take on product strategy and road-mapping.

Wins

Evangelize acquisition strategy that depends on user-initiated product analysis and buying interest, testing a first-time and repeat buying experiences for all client segments with an average 3.4% click through rate and a 33% conversion rate.

Spearhead integration of real-time user research and survey vendor, empowering teams to run user tests on new features and other UX.

Kick off and lead discussions with a newly acquired product line to implement marketing strategy online, including building digital user segments and qualified leads for the sales teams.

Create digital experiences that showcase our product and research line to sophisticated investors (registered investment advisors, private banks and institutional investors). Hunt for ways to expand our digital brand presence and optimize features to drive engagement among sophisticated investors.

Challenge

Influence and empower marketing, sales and tech departments to run like agile, lean start-ups to bring customer-centric digital experiences to market for the sophisticated investor and hold ourselves to valuable success metrics.

How

Held cross-functional ideation workshops exploring user research to identify insights, create a coterie of product ideas and kick off wire framing and rapid prototyping experiments.

Developed the digital content strategy to drive higher engagement across the sophisticated investor content experience. This included working with the content and design teams closely, advocating for better design and delivery method for digital assets, content library design and functionality and interactive story-telling experiences.

QoQ highest performing content pieces across sophisticated investor site in 2016 with an average bounce rate of 20% compared to an average article bounce rate of 75%.

QoQ highest performing content pieces across sophisticated investor site in 2016, out to 10 content pieces, 2-3 interactive pieces accounted for on average 54% of top views.

From 0 to Average Social Engagements of +5400 in 2016 (LinkedIn & Twitter)

From 0 to Average Social Impressions of +1,820,000+ in 2016 (LinkedIn & Twitter)

Sophisticated Investor Re-platform (2016)

Posted an average 54% increase website visits MoM in Q3 and Q4 2016.

Posted an average quarterly conversion rate of 25% in Q3 and Q4 2016.

Product Lead, Tone, Oct 2013 - June 2014

Mission

Collaborate with founding team to create a mobile and web application that empowers frontier market SMBs with affordable tools to increase their revenue and simultaneously provide brands in-market user behavior data and analytics to better serve their customers’ needs.

Challenge

Define MVP with Founder and CTO and deliver prototype with real consumer, brand and small business users to showcase at the 2014 mOceans Conference.

How

Provide input on business model design, identify MVP features and pitch concept with founder to potential partners.

Wins

Landed sustainable fish distributor as small business, partnered with local NGO as brand and independent fisherman as consumers.

Create an end-to-end operating and business model for new business line that is resilient, flexible and drives open communication, delivering product platforms on time, with value to clients, while also driving a shift from corporate to entrepreneurial culture and mindset.

How

Identify the right team members with the right skillsets to tackle challenges, empower them to be successful and contribute to defining the operating model, moving the business line forward.

Hold open meetings with multiple functions to collectively work on an unforeseen challenge and define the roadmap to removing roadblocks to success.

Encourage transparency among internal teams, focus team members on the value to clients and hedge fund partners we aim to deliver, balancing the shared value in the B2B2C structure.

Wins

Successfully launched a private bank platform with 6 hedge fund partners with assets under management of $500 million in year one (2011).

Built a repeatable process allowing the business line to pivot to another platform structure, expanding the company’s reach to retail clients in the Nordic countries (2011).

Hedge Fund Product Specialist, Man Investments Jan 2008 - Apr 2011

Mission

Transform product platform from an internal source of value for client portfolio management to a flexible, customizable external-facing product platform, providing reporting, transparency and flexibility to each platform client.

Challenge

Execute against an aggressive 12-month roadmap, moving existing hedge fund partnerships to a new model, help define operational model, craft product platform value prop and pitch to clients with product team. Build and grow relationships with hedge fund partners, working alongside C-level teams and other business teams.

How

Identify the right team members with the right skill sets to tackle challenges, empower them to be successful and contribute to defining the operating model, moving the business line forward.

Hold open meetings with multiple functions to collectively work on an unforeseen challenge and define the roadmap to removing roadblocks to success.

Encourage transparency among internal teams, focus team members on the value to clients and hedge fund partners we aim to deliver, balancing the shared value in the B2B2C structure.

Built a repeatable process with internal partners to ensure best in class client experience, through the full client relationship cycle, helping the firm win a $2 billion pension plan mandate (2010).

Education & Awards

Asset Management Monitor - Investor - 2017

Gold Monitor Award Winner - Product Pages Re-design

General Assembly - 2014, 2015

Product Management | Instructor - Dave Lifson

UX Design | Instructor - Sharon Emerson

Rutgers University - Jul 2017 - Jul 2018

Design Thinking Program | Advisory Board Member

Hillsdale College - 2005

English + History

Projects

Debug Politics Volunteer (March - Sep 2017)

Support DP team by promoting the LA Hackathon (Apr 28-30) via social media to encourage participants to join. Tap networks to pitch potential judges and mentors to DP team committee. Support team for upcoming Hackathons in 2017.

OFI Digital Innovation Team (2016)

Used the JTBD approach to identify a pain point for our customers, wrote and conducted user interviews, captured insights and identified ideas to prototype, tested prototype and showcased use case to marketing & HR leadership to shift approach to employee learning towards design thinking.

Volunteer Product Manager, Advocate.io (Jan 2017)

Worked on product team of 7, right hand for product lead, scoped social fundraising feature, mocked up user flows, wrote user stories for design/dev, prototyped and prepped pitch for product lead to VC judges.